This isn’t the first time I’m bringing up the topic of “realism” in games with its pros and cons. To open up my Gamer talk on game design series of posts, I wanted to talk about it again and discuss about when to use it and when not to.
If you’re interested in robotics, you’ve probably heard of the term “uncanny valley”. In our striving for realistic representation of anything in real life you stumble upon this issue very often. When the copy of something real due to it’s perfect or imperfect representation feels wrong. Like the ideal symmetry of a human face, something impossible in real life. I bet, any 3D modeller creating faces for game characters had to think about this at least for a bit. Yet, due to the level of visual quality in games of today, what happens more often is that a player must “suspend disbelief” to believe in a character on screen. Meaning, that you do need to use your imagination to fill in the blanks or paint over the simplicity of visuals.
Developers sometimes seem to forget that in their attempts to go highly realistic they can make things less realistic. And that the imagination is still a vital element of every game visual. When you read books or watch a theater play you must force yourself to embrace the limitations of the medium and with the power of imagination start believing in what’s happening on pages/on the stage. If you don’t want to believe, you won’t, plain and simple. Just like with watching a magic trick, where if you focus too hard on seeing the imperfections of the illusion, going for “too realistic” in games can motivate the players to focus on seeing the flaws, rather than the beauty. Setting too high of an expectation to ever be able to achieve it.
Of course, another important thing of note is that visuals age with time. Doom 3, Half-Life 2, F.E.A.R. were all visual benchmarks of their time. 5-6 years later and now, in 2010, Doom 3 and F.E.A.R. often look plastic-y, especially when it comes to NPCs. All while Half-Life 2 character models still look really nice, even if outdated. All because Valve, as usual, decided to go with a slightly stylized, slightly cartoonish designs for the characters, making them timeless. Try using any “high-res mod” for the game that switches the models for anything hi-poly and you’ll see how different that would look, especially the ones that try to go for a “realistic” look. Team Fortress 2 would probably be preserved even better due to the visuals.
I wish, more developers would think very carefully about going for realism in their titles. Would remember that without stimulating player imagination, without giving us reasons to believe in what we see, no hi-res texture or hi-poly model can save it.